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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25290691">Give Them a Week</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuhlaine/pseuds/kuhlaine'>kuhlaine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, M/M, POV Outsider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:35:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,684</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25290691</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuhlaine/pseuds/kuhlaine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Kurt and Blaine, as told by Marley, Unique, Jake, Ryder, and Kitty.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Give Them a Week</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This one goes out to livi (@lgbtdalton on twt) whose tweeted inspired this lil fic!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="u">Fall</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Many of them knew Kurt before they find out that he’s <em>Kurt </em>Kurt. Marley instantly recognizes him from the Lima Bean – he’d quickly become her favorite barista during his three months of employment. He certainly didn’t look happy to be there – no one behind the counter did – but he always greeted his customers with a smile. They never say more than hello, please, and thank you – and on the mornings when Marley’s already running late to her lifeguarding shift at the community pool she sometimes didn’t even have time for that – but there’s something about him that she can’t help but like.</p><p>He had narrowed his eyes at her when she’d stepped in to the Lima Bean the morning of her first day back at McKinley. Her hands had started trembling from the moment she’d woken up, and the fact that she’d barely gotten any sleep didn’t help either. She ordered her usual – an iced vanilla late – and did her best to resist the urge to chew on her nails while she waited.</p><p>“Iced vanilla late for Marley?” Kurt called out just seconds after a clique of Cheerio’s walked through the door.</p><p>Marley raced up to the counter, hoping she could slip out unnoticed by the Cheerio’s if she moved quickly enough. She frowned as she went to grab her drink, a pastry bag leaning against her cup.</p><p>“Oh, I-I didn’t order this,” she called out shyly, not wanting to disturb Kurt while he prepared his next round of drinks, but not wanting to accidentally take someone’s order either.</p><p>“It’s on the house,” he explained, throwing Marley a wink before turning back to the espresso machine.</p><p>She’s still puzzled, but didn’t have time to question Kurt any further – the squad of Cheerio’s were already starting to whisper behind their hands as they not at all subtly looked her way. She shuffled out the door as quickly as she could, not even realizing that there was a message scribbled in sharpie on the pastry bag.</p><p>
  <em>First days are never easy – but I hope this gives you a little bit of courage. </em>
</p><p>It felt silly, to find courage in the gift of a free blueberry muffin – but it’s exactly what she needed to get through the day.</p><p>Kitty recognizes him too – it makes sense that Blaine, the annoyingly eager beaver is dating the only barista in Lima who doesn’t know how to make a lukewarm iced latte. They’re made for each other, she thinks bitterly. Lima’s very own Mr. Dumb and Mr. Even Dumber.</p><p>Kurt is one of the first things they learn about Blaine. Mr. Schue has them do a couple of ice breakers at their first official glee club rehearsal to help better introduce the newcomers. Blaine spends a full five minutes talking about his wonderful and talented boyfriend who just moved out to New York and has an interview at Vogue – “Vogue!” – and just moved into the <em>coolest </em>loft in Bushwick.</p><p>Blaine paints quite the picture – one that Unique eagerly backs up based on the few interactions she had with Kurt while she was still at Carmel High. Tina and Sam always gently reel Blaine in when he starts going into Monologue- About-Kurt mode, reassuring the newcomers that Kurt really is a wonderful guy, but Blaine can get a little… over excited sometimes.</p><p>It’s impossible to miss the shift in Kurt and Blaine’s dynamic just a few weeks into the school year. Despite being physically absent everyone can sense that maybe Kurt is emotionally absent now too. They watch as Blaine gets cut off mid “I love you” while on the phone with Kurt in between classes. They notice how Blaine practically leaps out of his seat every time he receives a new text message, deflating every time it’s not from Kurt. They become the silent audience to what feels like the end of Kurt and Blaine’s story.</p>
<hr/><p>“It’s Kurt!” Blaine announces excitedly during lunch one afternoon, holding up his phone as though he has something to prove.</p><p>Everyone gives him a sympathetic smile or nod before he bolts out of his seat to take the call out in the hallway.</p><p>“I give them another week,” Jake mumbles around his sandwich the minute Blaine’s out of earshot.</p><p>It feels cruel to even entertain the idea of a break up, but they all solemnly nod in agreement – even Tina and Sam, two of Blaine’s biggest supporters.</p><p>“It’s just a rough patch,” Marley protests – feeling a strange need to defend a relationship she only tangentially knows about. “Everyone goes through them.”</p><p>A part of her refuses to reconcile that the kind and generous Kurt who helped her the day she needed it most is the same Kurt who may be leaving Blaine behind.</p><p>In the end Jake is proven wrong. They break up two weeks later.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="u">Winter</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Jake finds it all astonishing, how much drama can come as a result of a single break up. Sure, his own budding relationship with Marley isn’t without its problems – but the seniors are in a world of their own.</p><p>“This is literally painful,” he whispers to Marley.</p><p>Unique doesn’t bother pretending she wasn’t eavesdropping, chiming in with a groan. “She <em>does </em>know he’s gay, right?”</p><p>They all shift their attention to the table across the cafeteria, where Tina has spent the past ten minutes tenderly reapplying gel to Blaine’s hair.</p><p>“Maybe she doesn’t,” Marley offers – choosing, perhaps naively, to try to see the best in people.</p><p>“Give her some credit – she’s not that stupid,” Kitty snips, shoving Ryder aside so she can squeeze in at the end of their table.</p><p>The conversation shifts to lighter topics – plans for Valentine’s Day, this week’s glee assignment, carpooling to Mr. Schue’s wedding – but Jake can’t keep himself focused. He peeks over at Blaine, watching him smile weakly at Sam as he makes a spectacle of shoving a Twizzler up his nose.</p><p>It’s not his business, and quite frankly he usually wouldn’t care – but he feels for Blaine. He’s gone through his fair share of breakups, he knows firsthand that they’re never easy – but it feels jarring to watch the Kurt that Blaine had built with endless anecdotes and photos and videos and poetic compliments come apart.</p><p>It’s not that he says anything negative about Kurt – Jake doesn’t think it’s possible for Blaine to mention Kurt without squeezing at least two compliments into the same sentence. It’s the <em>way </em>he talks about Kurt that’s changed – in just a few months their relationship has gone from a dream to a memory.</p><p>The loss of Kurt as a constant in his life doesn’t just come through in the stories Blaine tells either. It’s in the songs that he sings, in the way he switches from pastels and neon to muted tones, in the sadness behind his eyes whenever someone so much as hints at the mere idea of love.</p><p>Blaine’s pretty cool – in a bowties and suspender kind of way, and Kurt seems pretty cool too. And while relationships aren’t really his thing, a part of him hopes they’ll find their way back to one another.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>
    <em>
      <span class="u">Spring</span>
    </em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Many of them meet Kurt for the first time in the Spring. He comes back to McKinley with a confidence that seems otherworldly to a group of high school sophomores. Marley can’t help but watch in awe as he enters the choir room with a grace and sureness in himself that makes him feel like a brand-new person.</p><p>It’s odd for some of them, meeting someone they’ve heard so much about but have never actually met. In many ways, he’s exactly the way they’d pictured him. He’s talented, there’s no denying that. Neither Ryder nor Jake know much about fashion, but they have to admit that he has an eye for tasteful accessories.</p><p>What’s more exciting than finally getting to actually see Kurt live in the flesh, is getting to see Kurt <em>with </em>Blaine.</p><p>No amount of poignant storytelling could accurately capture just way Kurt and Blaine look at each other. It makes Marley’s stomach flutter, as if it’s her own love story she’s watching unfold. At times it feels inappropriate, like they’re intruding on an intimate moment.</p><p>Kitty had been skeptical at first – she’d always secretly thought that Kurt and Blaine had been plagued with a terrible case of <em>he’s more into you than you’re into him. </em>But she’s quickly proven wrong when Kurt takes Blaine’s hand in the middle of the glee club for no reason other than to have him close.</p><p>What’s odd is their insistence that they’re nothing more than friends. Unique inadvertently gets roped into accompanying them to the movies after glee one afternoon. She does what she can to try to get herself out of it, claiming that she doesn’t want to intrude – but Kurt insists. They’re just friends, she should absolutely join.</p><p>They don’t even make it to the previews before they start making out. Unique sighs, excusing herself to the bathroom where she calls Marley to ask for a ride home. The boys don’t even notice when she doesn’t come back.</p>
<hr/><p>“It’s weird, right?” Ryder asks as he settles in at their usual table at the Lima Bean. “They’re like… gazing into each other’s souls.”</p><p>No one bothers to look over at the table behind them – they’re all well aware that Kurt and Blaine are having another one of their <em>moments</em>.</p><p>“You act like you’re surprised,” Unique teases. They’ve all become accustomed to Kurt and Blaine’s “we are but we’ll say we’re not” dance by now.</p><p>But Ryder still can’t look away – watching in fascination as Kurt and Blaine gaze at each other, their hands linked casually on the table, Blaine running his thumb along Kurt’s knuckles. Marley tugs on his shirt sleeve until he finally looks away.</p><p>“Do you think they’ll get back together?” Ryder asks, sparing one last look before he turns to the rest of the table.</p><p>“I give them a week,” Jake says casually, everyone nodding and humming in agreement.</p><p>But they’re proven wrong for a second time. They get engaged a week later.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you so much for reading! :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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